Reynold's Log 2
Seems like I have a lot of time to reflect on the events of the past couple of days. It’s funny, under a week ago we landed on Talus in the Corellian sector to install the new hyper drive on the Aldera, and after my first jump, I have lost this ship, and I’m rottin’ in a rebel prison. It never goes smooth. How come it never goes smooth? Tryin’ to return to the Aldera with the precious human cargo passenger, two TIE fighters engaged the retreatin’ crew on their air speeders, the TIE’s were more than a match for the lightly armed speeders. The team managed to swerve and dodge the blaster fire, tossin’ Roth off, and ultimately returnin’ to the Barracks where Lt Nealon was holdin’ the line. He managed to draw the fighters away, buyin’ the team time to return to the shelter by activatin’ the barracks turret… sadly all this did was draw the TIE wing’s fire. He was badly hurt, but saved the crew. In racin’ back, the TIE lead strafed at the team, only to lose control of their craft and crash into the sealed building, making a good openin’. His wingman pulled up, only to have I8-U2 leap off the roof of the Barracks onto the TIE fighter, tear into the cockpit with his robotic claws, and toss the pilot out to his death…. Then came around to provide air support. Woah, some good programmin’. Joey, Gorg and Min secured the Compound Darven raided the armory, bringing the speeder into the building to minimize liftin’ ‘n such. Joey got trapped in the elevator, - gorram holovid nut - after Ronin got locked out from the hostile computer defenses, losin’ his fancy computer in the process. Gorbie-Wan found three locked down TIE fighters, and with the help of Rona’s Utility Belt Pro, everyone had everythin’ they would need for every situation ever. (ed. note: grumble, to hell with you all….). They cut the three of them free, and Joe, Min and Roth take to the Air, and cut down the approachin’ reinforcements from the System’s star destroyer. The team makes quick work of the Stormtrooper platoon, knowin’ their tactics, and wastin’ them all quickly, the team emerged victorious, though Gorg paid the ultimate price, standin’ alone inside the barracks when the troopers stormed it. In the short time they had before the next wave of fighters, the team scuttles the damaged TIE, departs the planet and stores three of the functionin’ units on a near by moon. Sell location of Illegal Imperial Starship Salvage: 1000cr, good job The team makes their way to a Rendez-vous point, Corellian Engineerin’ Corporations space station factory for YT class cruisers. It is here Lt Kevin Nealon reveals that he needs pilots to bring back to the fleet as many YT class ships as possible. He is also relived to uncover that the late/non-responsive “Rogue Squadron” did successfully make their way to the station. Each pilot is assigned an R2 class astromech, each of which as one of five hyperspace locations pre-programmed into it, with strict self-destruct rules programmed into the droid to prevent its data from fallin’ into anyone’s hands. With heightened security in the Core Worlds, especially in the mildly rebellious Corellian sector, Stormtrooper presence is high on the CEC factory (Is mastery and full of jams that has to be). Each crewmember is searched in turn interrogated by patrols. Min, Joey Roth and Gorbie-wan each bypass the troopers, calmin’ down the nervous and ready to pop droids. Darvin and his droid are arrested and strip searched. His droid detonates, and he is held without charges. I got him out, when the troopers were off responding to the trouble I8- U2 and Ronin would get themselves into. I8-U2 and Ronin are interrogated heavily as the troopers do not understand why Ronin needs three droids. Ronin kills the lead trooper by blaster gun, I8- U2 lops of the head of the other. One droid panics and blows itself up, catchin’ the other droid in it’s radius as well as the stormtroopers corpses. They clean themselves off, and hide on Joey’s ship in bay 101 Roth’s droid has a problem when it enter’s bay 101. The ship he was assigned, VIN 12345 (same as my luggage combo!), is not in the bay. Roth engages the sales staff, gets a tour of a nice YT-1300, kills the sales guy, and tries to launch the ship in demo mode. In order to release the dockin’ clamps, to complete it’s mission, Roth’s R2 unit downloads the hyper jump co-ordinates, rolls down the ships’ ramp, and detonates itself, freein’ the ship (and inflictin’ moderate crash damage). Roth cancels demo mode, and ready’s the ship for departure. Min observes this activity with a, ‘hmph, cool’. With the ship in lockdown, and security en route, Roth is faced with a difficult choice. Destroy the shield field generator, preventin’ him from leavin’ the CEC factory, or surrenderin’. Destruction of the shield generator would open the bay to the coldness/airlessness of space, killin’ 160 people… Gorbie-wan’s R2 unit, does not feel the same conundrum, and powers up the weapon systems to destroy said systems. Gorbie re-routes weapons command to himself, the R2 unit shuts down his life-support and power to the bridge in response…. Good thing he had a flight suit. Nealon, or Lt. Antilles as he identifies himself calls off the mission. “We failed, we will not kill all these people”. Roth gives a brief warning on the loud speaker that he will be firing on the shield generator… the bay crew panics, one of Rogue squadron fires on him, but that does not stop Roth from spacin’ the one sympathizers ironically. Roth has a made a destiny for Redemption, to bring him back from his evil ways. Available for anyone in the party to accept, including himself. Reluctantly, Wedge orders that the mission resume. Half of Rogue squadron pelts Roth’s YT freighter with blaster fire as they leave in anger over his actions. Wedge loses two members of Rogue squadron in the turbo laser hailstorm as the flotilla tries to escape the system, still confounded to the extended range of the planetary gravity field. 18 YT craft were recovered for the Rebel fleet, all of which they would gladly return for the clean conscience. Gorbie-wan would later learn that the TIE Marines, whom he used to fly with, still exist and were responsible for inflicting heavy losses on Rebel Fighter Pilots. Roth attempted to make some deal with I8-U2 to help him out of this jam. Rebels don’t take so well to droids walkin’ around alone, crimpin’ his style, and is prevented from helping in the short timeframe before the search of the vessel. I sat down with Roth, as I have done so many times in the last six months. It should have been me to make his decision. Now I stake my life that he is a good person, actual and whole, and if I'm wrong, you'd best shoot me now... Roth is on my crew. Nothin’ left to talk about. I destroyed Roth’s ship, there is no evidence to convict him under Republic law. I am guilty of destroying evidence, and for that, I am going to prison. Gorbie-wan, when you read this log, my command codes are included. They are your crew now, and the Aldera is a good ship. When I get out, I aim to buy me a nice little summer cottage and relax for a bit.